Tom Clancy’s The Division was a game showcased by Ubisoft at E3 2013 and subsequently wowed gamers and press alike with its seven minute gameplay demo. Speaking to The Examiner, Ubisoft Massive Managing Director David Polfeldt talked about the delay of Watch Dogs and how the attitude of delaying a game to perfect it is something that is prevalent throughout Ubisoft.
According to Polfeldt, “It’s tremendously important for us as a developer studio, to know that the owner and the publisher are ready to take that hit, and [the Watch Dogs delay] was a massive hit… It takes so much courage to live through that day and still think that was a good decision. So for us in the development [side of things], that’s an important message that ultimately the management will back up the goals that we have, which is the game has to be great.”
He continued, “…If you look at Ubisoft you see a lot of people who have been in the company for over 20 years and that’s not very common today in corporate landscapes. But I do think that one of the reasons is people believe that ultimately this company has a very positive agenda about putting out good entertainment products and we’re willing to back it up, we’re will to take a few hits and some larger risks to make sure quality is very high.”
According to Polfeldt, developers at Ubisoft are constantly striving for innovation and are willing to even study the work of competitors to see what they do right and how that can benefit Ubisoft’s future games. “Definitely when we go to the internal milestones, we’re constantly being pushed for more innovation, thinking further, what could you do that surprises even ourselves?.. Have [we] studied the competition? So there’s never a discussion about ‘just get it done guys, hurry up, we have a deadline, and it doesn’t matter if it’s really perfect, just get it done.’”
Tom Clancy’s The Division is currently projected for a fall 2014 release on the PS4, Xbox One and PC.
- This article was updated on February 22nd, 2018
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